Krembil Foundation

1. Toronto General Western Hospital Foundation
The TGWHF has been a major beneficiary of the Krembil Foundation. There are a number of projects that the foundation has supported and continues to support. Below is detailed list of the projects that the foundation is currently supporting:

Krembil Research Seed Fund

This is a pool of money that is set aside to support innovative research projects that would not be able to get funding anywhere else.

Psoriac Arthritis Clinical Research

This request is to support the Psoriac Arthritis Clinic. The Toronto Western Hospital has the world’s largest and longest running Psoriac Arthritis Clinic supporting over 1,000 patients and doing follow up studies on over 800 patients. The Krembil Foundation funds both the clinic and basic research done by the primary investigator Dr. Dafna Gladman.

c. Spinal Cord Repair

The request is for funds in support of the new emerging team in ‘Spinal Cord Repair & Regeneration’. They are trying to find solutions for patients with acute and chronic spinal cord injury. The team is made up of a group of six scientists and surgeons; each brings a unique set of specific abilities. Currently the team is doing basic research to further develop their strategies for dealing with these problems.

d. Parkinson’s – Program of Translational Research

This grant is for funding in support of a proposal made by Dr. Jonathan Brotchie of the Toronto Western Research Institute for Parkinson’s research. The proposal is to develop a drug evaluation and testing program for Parkinson’s disease. The program will focus on translating research success into treatments that have proven effectiveness in patients suffering from Parkinson disease. We believe this is one key area with significant potential to help patients and secure the Krembil Neuroscience Centre’s position as a world leader in biomedical research.

e. Postdoctoral Fellowships

This was a one time commitment from the Krembil Foundation. The funds will be used to provide support to a core of the most promising researchers at a pivotal time in their careers.

Raised extra cellular potassium: proposed mechanism of deep brain stimulation and platform for a novel treatment of Parkinson ’s disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesia

ii.

Mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of a novel animal model of mental retardation

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Novel Long-Range Regulatory Elements in Interferon Signaling

iv.

Computational neuroscience experimental analysis and modeling using time frequency methods with applications to Epilepsy

Molecular mechanisms mediating interactions of casein kinase I with GABBA receptors in the biological clock

f. Nursing Research Seed Fund

The purpose of this grant is to fund initiatives that enhance quality of work-life for nurses as well as promote professional development. It is also meant to fund research that expands nursing knowledge in the area of patient-centered care and in the recruitment and retention of nurses.

2. University of Saskatchewan – VIDO
This grant is in support of medical research, specifically “Improving Early Childhood Vaccines”. Vaccines have saved more lives than all other methods of controlling infectious diseases combined. The goal is to develop novel technologies to enhance the human immune responses to vaccines in children that will also have broad application in adults.

3. Robarts Research Institute – Krembil Centre for Stem Cell Biology
Robarts is a unique organization that performs high level medical research in London, Ontario. Robarts does not receive direct funding from the government and therefore has a somewhat entrepreneurial approach to research. Our support is focused on the creation of the “Krembil Centre for Stem Cell Biology”. This new centre will expand the understanding of Stem Cells. Stem cells have received a lot of press in the past but we believe this is a very important area of study as the possibilities are endless. The lab is focusing its attention on basic research into what makes Stem Cells differentiate into specific cell types.

4. St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation – Triple Threat
This grant is for financial support of the “Triple Threat” project headed by Dr. Duncan Stewart. Triple Threat stands for Toronto Heart Regeneration Assisted Cell Therapy. The project attempts to prove in clinical studies that the addition/enhancement of the NOS gene in heart muscle precursor cells that have been placed into severely damaged hearts can significantly improve the success rate of the cells differentiating into healthy heart muscles. The control in this study would be patients that receive their own unmodified precursor cells. If successful, this could become a life saving treatment for severely damaged hearts.

5. York University – Scholarship and Tuition
The grant is in support of a number of scholarships designed to encourage business students at various stages of their academic career. There are a total of four Krembil Awards that are handed out annually.

Robert Krembil Scholarship of Merit Award

Robert Krembil MBA Award

Robert Krembil MBA Entrance Awards

Robert Krembil PhD Award

6. Think First – Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Prevention
This is a national organization that promotes child safety by trying to get children to think about the consequences of their actions. The main focus is in spinal cord injury prevention. There are two methods used to reach children; first, through a program provided free to teachers to be included with regular lesson plans. Second, sport specific videos that show children what can happen and what they might do to try and prevent injury.

7. Boundless – Youth at Risk Education Program
This is an organization that is dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged youth and children at risk through a unique combination of counseling, community support, education and outdoor adventure. Their goal is to help these young adults complete their high school degrees through the education support they need to achieve academic success. This organization also equips youth with the life skills and resiliency necessary to discourage problematic substance abuse, transience and criminal behavior.

8. St. Christopher House – Financial Advocacy and Problem Solving (FAPS)
The request is for funds in support of a ‘Financial Advocacy & Problem Solving’ (FAPS) team. This team has been in operation for approximately two years. The goal of the team is to provide financial advice and assistance to low income individuals. The team helps individual’s complete tax returns and organize their financial situations so that they can take advantage of certain government programs. The goal is to help individuals so they can help themselves.

St. Christopher House has had a very successful 2005 tax season; in which they returned over a million dollars to the community in refunds and benefits. They already exceeded the number of individuals they served in 2004 and more than doubled the number of tax returns filed during the tax season. Many of the increased number of individuals they have served so far have come from referrals. This suggests that FAPS is becoming a key resource for social service colleagues, social assistance offices, community legal clinics, housing agencies and even Canada Revenue Agency.

9. Renascent Group – Alcoholic Addictions Family Support
This is an organization that helps people break addictions to alcohol and drugs. It is a twelve step program that has both an in patient and an out patient program.

The Renascent Group has reached some significant milestones with the foundations support: They have retained a second family counselor, doubling their capacity to grant one-on-one support to their clients. They have re-engineered and re-introduced their family program seminar series. They are now in the curriculum design process for their parenting program and are ready to move forward with the development of their family assessment protocol. This last element will be the first of its kind in Ontario and Canada.

The support from the Krembil Foundation has allowed them to do more research, planning and implementation then ever imagined. The next 12 months will be critical, they are in the process of streamlining current programs and building in new program elements for testing, before executing the full program that they have envisioned. To date they have over $1.65 million committed to their campaign.

10. Toronto Distress Centre – Youth Hotline (Suicide Counseling)
While this project does not fit the primary mandate of the Krembil Foundation we have decided to provide financial support because we believe that the Centre provides a valuable service. It is our hope that this support will give the Toronto Distress Centres a powerful tool to help them better serve their clients.

The request is for funds in support of the Toronto Distress Centres ‘Data collection project’. This project entails the installation of a computer system that will be used by the centre’s phone councilors to capture caller data. The data will be used to analyze the calls received by the centre. It is believed that by analyzing the data the Toronto Distress Centres will be better able to inform the community about trends / issues that are affecting the population that uses the centre’s services; and better able to target the needs of the population that uses the centre’s services.

Over the past two years the Distress Centres has been able to collect important information that has been used to improve training sessions, case management, and to analyze the Distress Line’s effectiveness. Furthermore, the information they have gathered has helped other social service agencies and organizations better understand new and emerging social issues, gaps in services, and social problem trends in the community.

11. Yonge Street Mission – Street Level 2006 Conference
The Yonge Street Mission (YSM) is an organization that seeks to provide a helping hand to those in the community. The request for funds is in support of “Street Level 2006: Truthtellers and Peacemakers” conference hosted by The Roundtable on Poverty and Homelessness. This team of individuals has been operating since June 2003. They are hosting and organizing the “Street Level 2006: Truthtellers and Peacemakers” conference as the first step in their vision to develop a strategy to combat poverty and homelessness. This conference will be held in Ottawa from March 29, 2006 to April 1, 2006.

12. Make a Wish Foundation – Tournament of Champions
“Make a Wish Foundation” is an organization that provides dream wishes to terminally ill children. The grant is given within the context of the “”Tournament of Champions” where a child’s dream is fulfilled when a horse is provided to carry out the child’s last wish.

13. Let’s Talk Science – National Needs Assessment
The purpose of this grant is to fund the planning and execution of a national needs assessment of the formal education community that will provide valuable information to guide Let’s Talk Science school program activities. By better understanding each jurisdictions’ needs and expectations, investment can be made in resources and programs that best meet the needs of individual jurisdictions and lead to positive systemic change in science teaching and learning.

The needs assessment will be a multi-step process of identifying issues, collecting information and drawing conclusions about concerns related to the teaching and learning of science in order to develop programs that suit each provinces needs. As a result of this research, Let’s Talk Science will complete four major stages for this needs assessment: planning, data collection, data analysis and application.

14. Community Association for Riding for the Disable (CARD) – Luncheon
CARD is a non-profit organization that has been helping individuals with disabilities through riding programs in a safe, supportive, barrier-free environment. The therapeutic riding program helps physically by improving coordination, trunk control, muscle strength and balance was well as emotionally by developing self esteem, self confidence and an overall improved quality of life.